Greystone GT scored a superb triple-podium finish in the GT Cup at Donington Park on a weekend when they introduced GT3 machinery into their line-up for the first time.
The Silverstone-based team fielded its largest-ever roster of five cars with a McLaren 720S GT3 alongside four 570S GT4s; the team’s highly-experienced crew rising to the challenge brilliantly and paving the way for Andrey Borodin to finish third in GT3 in Sunday’s sprint race.
The Russian then combined with professional co-driver Ed Pead for an identical result in both class and overall in the 50-minute pitstop race; Londoner Ed setting the second-fastest outright lap of the race.
Iain Campbell - whose McLaren was sporting a new livery at Donington - continued his excellent debut season with career-best qualifying and sprint results on Saturday with sixth on the grid and fourth in the race.
The Sandhurst driver added his third podium of the season as he and professional co-driver Oli Webb combined to finish third in Saturday’s pitstop encounter.
He was running easily in the top six in Sunday’s longer event when he was spun out by two colliding rivals at the Melbourne Loop, and had been a victim of a hit from behind in the second sprint too.
Donington local Mark Hopton was another to collect the best results of his debut season with fifth in Sunday qualifying - also the best for Greystone GT to date - and fourth with pro racer Adam Carroll in the same day’s pitstop race.
His Saturday efforts were undone in the sprint when he was spun around by a GT3 car attempting to lap him; the damage sustained leading to a technical issue during the longer race and spelling retirement.
Rich Mason was another to score his best sprint result with seventh on Saturday. The Silverstone race winner - from Harrogate - paired up with former European Le Mans Series Champion Jon Lancaster for eighth and seventh in the two pitstop races.
There was a fourth GTH McLaren entered by the team for the first time for race debutant Phillip Carter, who set tongues wagging with 10th place in his maiden qualifying session and finished Saturday’s sprint a staggering ninth.
Paired with experienced professional Michael Broadhurst for the weekend, the York racer came home ninth again in the opening pitstop race despite a 20-second ‘newcomers’ penalty. They were 13th and eighth on Sunday.
The results of the weekend moved Iain and Oli up a spot to fifth in the GTH standings with Rich and Jon 10th and Mark and Adam 12th. As a guest entry, Phillip and Michael were not registered for points.
Mark McLoughlin, Team Principal, said: “Donington’s resulted in a highly-successful weekend for us. It’s the first time we’ve scored three podiums over a weekend, and to get two of them from our GT3 crew on the debut of the McLaren 720S is just fantastic. Andrey and Ed both did a brilliant job in the car; both racing it for the first time and neither putting a foot wrong. Iain’s added another podium while Mark and Rich have both scored career-best results of one form or another and Phillip was superb on his debut. Mark, especially, has always had the potential to run at the front and to see him having the confidence to get out there and challenge for pole position in the wet and nearly get a podium was great to see. I have to say a big congratulations to the whole team and to all our sporting drivers - who each started the year as rookies - and have made such incredible progress. I’m really excited about what Snetterton could bring us at the season finale.”
